Kigo Blog

5 Regrets of Vacation Rental Property Managers

After being involved in the world of vacation rentals at every level, from starting out as a manager, to creating a startup, to managing businesses, we see recurring regrets from other property managers that have been in the business for years.

There are bumps on the road as your property management company business grows from a small enterprise into a global business, with properties and staff in various countries.

We thought we’d share some of our experiences and help you avoid having the same regrets as your business grows. See if you share any of these experiences:

Not expanding sooner

If business is doing well, why change a winning formula? Many managers end up coming to regret not disrupting the status quo and pushing their businesses forward. Allowing your business to plateau and not taking that risk to push forward means that you will be left behind, and eventually eclipsed by businesses that will do more to establish themselves and their brand in your area. It is always a risk, and there can always be reasons to not to but doing whatever you can do to expand your business will pay dividends in the future and you will regret keeping things small for so long.

A lot of vacation rental businesses start as a side project for a second property. When this is proving profitable, it can be a difficult step to break free from the idea of this being a project, and taking the step to run it as a business. Creating a system and business plan that allows you to add more properties with a set profit margin on each, devoting money towards marketing and advertising and taking on staff is the best way to push your property management into a well-oiled machine that can be added to without increasing your daily workload.

Spending Too Long On The Simple Things

Once you have your business ticking over, it can be easy to keep the same strategy, keep the same hours and fail to delegate control of the day to day operations and administration of your business. No one’s dying breath is that they wish they had spent more time in the office, spent more time with their nose in a spreadsheet. Automating reporting and emailing can save hours from your working hours every day. Little things like this can build into big regrets as the time adds up.

Not Choosing The Right Software

Part of this automation will require a software to program these parts of your business. Homemade systems will be built as a business grows, to solve the issues that come up. These are reactive rather than proactive. They are not geared for expansion. A powerful software will not only help you manage your business, it will give you the tools to drive more bookings through your business and help you to generate more revenue. The right software amplifies the promotion and distribution whilst reducing the administrative work. Put simply, you put in less and get out more.

Neglecting Locations

The travel industry is dynamic and shifting. Tastes change on a whim. Business can be affected by these patterns and fashions, as well as government regulations. Adopting new locations and diversifying your business will give you the best chance of establishing your business as a household name. Missing out on the hottest new holiday spot because you were worried about adding to your workload can become a haunting regret and areas quickly become price prohibitive for new businesses.

Late Adoption of Social Media

In the last decade, small business advertising has been transformed by social media. It is easy to dismiss the latest networks as a fad or a craze. However, being too late means that you will struggle to get the impact of the early adopters that do it and do it well.

It’s easy to see businesses that found their niche on new media platforms such as Instagram, businesses that established themselves as the leader on one or more networks and manage to generate thousands of followers before other companies have even created an account.